Mystery of missing gavel solved

Used at Dem '08 convention, turns up in box at home

By Kevin Flynn, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Originally published 09:00 p.m., May 19, 2008
Updated 07:55 a.m., May 20, 2008

Linda McConnell © Special to the News

Laverna MacManus found the gavel in a box that was nearly discarded.

Legend has it that the gavel used to open and close the 1908 Democratic Convention in Denver was hand-carved from a tree on the Nebraska farm of the Great Commoner and presidential nominee, William Jennings Bryan.

And, the legend goes on, at the end it was presented as a gift to Mary C.C. Bradford, a Colorado suffragist who was one of five female delegates at the convention. She passed it on to the leaders of the Jane Jefferson Democratic Women's Club.

And finally, it was to be handed off through the ranks of the club's officers.

So where was it found last week?

In a box on the porch of a trailer home in Federal Heights, unseen for at least 36 years.

Now, the historic gavel is being offered for loan to the Democrats when delegates meet again in Denver a century later in August.

"This is the strangest thing, I forgot about it," said Laverna MacManus, 79. "When I became state president of the Janes in 1972, the president from the year before handed me this box and told me the story about it. Then the next president didn't have room in her car for this big box and she didn't want to take it. I ended up taking it home."

She had never even looked at the gavel.

"The lock was broken and I couldn't open it, so I never used it. I had a gavel of my own," she said. Widow of former Colorado state Sen. Don MacManus, Laverna MacManus is still part of the Adams County Jane Jeffersons, a club founded in 1904 and named after Thomas Jefferson's mother. But it is not nearly as active as it once was.

Last month, Denver Auditor and historian Dennis Gallagher mentioned the missing gavel from the 1908 convention during a talk to the Jane Jeffersons.

Last week, MacManus got the box and had someone open it.

"Lo and behold, there was the gavel," she said.

• May 20, 2008

  6:15 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Gene writes:

  Great story. History has that ability to make great stories.

• May 20, 2008

  7:19 a.m.

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  Earl writes:

  how nice

• May 20, 2008

  8:30 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Gene writes:

  Earl,
  I was trying to be nice. I enjoy history. Now if I was not trying to be nice, I would suggest the tradition of William Jennings Bryan is something the Democrats may not want to pursue. Think about it, Obamama is a great orator (so they say) and so was William Jennings Bryan. Populist both? The problem is William Jennings Bryan was a multiple looser.

• May 20, 2008

  8:45 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Froward69 writes:

  And the rethug posters have to turn a nice history lesson into a political bash.
  ok two can play.
  mcSame should remember that (1908) convention well. or has senility crept in?
  I get it now... thats why mcSame is the gop nominee. he will make a fine corporate puppet...

• May 20, 2008

  8:47 a.m.

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  Dick_Tater writes:

  "Legend has it that" this is complete BS. 3 stories involving someone being murdered and this gets top billing...

• May 20, 2008

  10:22 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  hikingartist writes:

  I am reading a book caled "The Mining Camps Speak" and they talk about the historical value of "junk" you can find at Colorado ghost towns, abondoned mines & camps, and a rusted old tin can can help determine the age of the settlement. For instance, sealed cans were not introduced until 1904. Up until that time hole-and-cap cans were the standard. American Can Company bought Sanitary Can Company in 1908 and the tin can was never the same.
  That is why the date rang a bell...history is cool.

• May 20, 2008

  12:52 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Gene writes:

  hikingartist,
  You and I agree on something !